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Edited by Patrick G. Mahoney
Putting global product
development to work
G
lobalization has dramatically affected
companies that develop and manufacture products. Opportunities abound,
but companies must keep up with local
market conditions. And global competition adds cost pressures and reduces the time companies have to bring products to market. (Time to market decreases an average of 5 to 10% every year.)
Globalization also spreads design and manufacturing
across various time zones and cultures, hindering
communication.
So how do you take advantage of globalization without losing control of product development? More importantly, how can you exploit global product development?
The answer is PLM — Product Lifecycle Management, one of the fastest growing segments of the software industry. PLM helps capture product data as well
as design knowledge and expertise.
Most companies, from the smallest to the large multinationals, recognize that new tools are needed to regain
control of widely dispersed product data. Many companies have invested heavily in technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Customer Relationship Management
(CRM). Combined with these other systems, PLM helps
company and supply-chain personnel by combining
business-critical systems for quicker innovation and
better collaboration.
PLM consists of design tools, Product Data Management (PDM), product visualization, enterprise-wide
Incubation
Growth
Maturity
Decline
End of life
3
Increased
profit
4
Maximize
Profit
2
Money
Bill Boswell
Senior Director, Teamcenter
Product Marketing
UGS
Plano, Tex.
The product life cycle
Time
Minimize
Loss
PLM technology helps
businesses engaged in global
product development improve
communication, reduce time
to market, and effectively
manage change.
1
1
2
3
4
Cost
savings
Ensure rapid product introduction to gain first-to-market advantage
Rapidly respond to market, accelerating growth curve
Sustain end-customer value by consistent product quality and performance
Expand into new markets, introduce midlife product improvements
collaboration, and process management. It controls access to all product-related data — from engineering drawings and 3D model files to
product specs and manufacturing instructions. It gives people the information they need, any time, anywhere in the world. Using PLM, businesses document and enforce product-development processes, increasing productivity based on well-designed best practices. In short,
an effective PLM system provides companies with a single source for
product and process knowledge.
THE “MICROSCOPIC” BENEFITS OF PLM
FEI Co., Hillsboro, Oreg., a manufacturer of electron microscopes, knows firsthand how a single source of information provides
tangible benefits.
Its four manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe were designing
microscopes with incompatible CAD systems. There were also cultural
and language differences across the company. Consequently, it had great
difficulty getting its engineers and others to work together on product development.
“The specialties of our different sites complement each other, but
working together often resulted in confusion,” explains Frank de Jong,
FEI research and technology manager. Flaws went undetected until
prototypes were built, wasting months and hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Accusations flew across the Atlantic as development sites
blamed one another’s CAD system, recalls de Jong. The problem was
not so much differences in design software, but that databases were inaccessible to those at other locations. FEI needed a compatible system
to profit from its product portfolio, mutual architecture, and innovations.
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Traditional versus integrated product development
Concept
design
Traditional
product 3%
development
Integrated
product
development
20%
Initial
design
Design testing
and revisions
Data
distribution
27%
55%
15%
13%
FEI turned to Teamcenter PLM software
from UGS to manage its data, including 3D
models created by various CAD systems. The
software gives all FEI facilities and suppliers
appropriate, secure access to data. “We
shortened the time to get products right in
one go, and the main advantage is sharing
data,” says de Jong.
FEI now takes advantage of concurrent
engineering. Production planning starts
early, not after product development is
done. And the company gets products to
market faster. FEI’s multiple sites now offer
a competitive advantage with developments
shared between locations. There are several
other PLM benefits.
Enterprises often grow through acquisitions and partnerships that add complexity.
But inconsistency can lead to misunderstandings and project delays. PLM establishes a common workflow that drives consistency. Companies can combine several
sites into a single team and standardize
practices. Companies with sites across the
world can publicize critical project milestones at all locations and at every phase of
the product’s life cycle. This lets all team
22%
5%
40% time savings
members immediately see how a change affects the overall effort.
GLOBAL
COLLABORATION
VERSUS
SEQUENTIAL PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
Global companies often find it difficult to
work collaboratively, forcing development
to proceed sequentially. Take, for example,
a simple engineering change order (ECO).
Typically, several people from various departments review and approve each ECO. If
this process proceeds sequentially, it may
take days or even weeks to complete. The
longer the process takes, the fewer design iterations can be evaluated, and the longer it
takes to get the product to market.
The 2D and 3D viewing and collaboration
features of a PLM system let multifunction
teams, including outside suppliers and partners, perform design reviews and ECO evaluations at the same time. This slashes development-cycle times and lets the team explore more design options. Used with effec-
tive workflow, all appropriate sign-offs are
tracked and recorded, assuring product
quality and peace of mind for developers.
PLM does this in a secure environment with
traceability and assurance that all regulatory
compliance requirements are met.
As designs grow more complex, so does
the size of the 3D CAD models used to define
them. Evaluating the effect of design changes
pushes the limit of today’s fastest computers.
In the automotive industry, for example,
a typical car has more than 10,000 parts. On
average there are 2,500 parts changes per
model every week. The impact of these
changes on weight, cost, and suppliers’
schedules must be analyzed. And while engineers are pulling the changes together,
more design changes are being made.
REPEATABLE DIGITAL
VALIDATION (RDV)
Scenarios such as these require datahandling tools that quickly evaluate numerous design alternatives. UGS does this with
Teamcenter’s Repeatable Digital Validation
(RDV). RDV uses the “lightweight 3D” product modeling of the “JT” format. This lets
users share 3D geometry representations
over the Internet without having to transport
immense CAD files.
The Web-based PLM provides an “always
on” digital mock-up of the product and all
its variations. Companies can make product
decisions more quickly and in “real time”
while assessing the affect on product performance. RDV delivers essential data to
those who must get the right product to the
right market.
By allowing global companies to efficiently manage their production information and processes, PLM might be the final
piece in the productivity puzzle. ■
Copyright © 2005 by Penton Media, Inc.
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